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Analyze Trends: Pesticide Dashboard

Please submit comments on the Pesticide Dashboard via the ECHO Contact Us page.

The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) authorizes EPA to regulate pesticide production, distribution, sale and use. Individuals applying pesticides must do so in a manner consistent with federal laws and regulations and also consistent with state/tribal laws and regulations, which may differ from state to state or tribe to tribe. Most states, territories and several tribes have primary authority for compliance monitoring and enforcement against the use of pesticides in violation of the labeling requirements (primacy).

The Pesticide Dashboard provides interactive charts that present a summary of key activities related to the FIFRA regulated community and answers questions like: how many facilities in the United States manufacture pesticides or employ workers covered by the Worker Protection Standard; how many have been inspected, and how many have violations and enforcement taken by states, tribes and/or EPA. Further information on the charts and tables can be found in the About the Data section and on the Pesticide Dashboard Help page.

The Pesticide Dashboard has two views:

The Worker Protection Standard (WPS) dashboard is focused on the universe of agricultural operations employing farm workers and pesticide handlers protected by the Worker Protection Standard.

The Establishment dashboard is focused on the regulated universe of pesticide-producing establishments, which includes pesticide manufacturers, sellers and distributors.

Facilities

Workers/Handlers

Inspections

Violations

Violation Types

Enforcement Actions

Common Questions

The data on state and tribal inspections and regulatory actions are submitted annually (Form: 5700-33H) to EPA. The form contains information on the number of WPS inspections conducted, the types and numbers of violations found and the number and types of regulatory actions taken during the year.

EPA inspection data is obtained from EPA’s ICIS database. EPA does not require Regional offices to enter all regulatory actions into ICIS, so many “informal” actions are not recorded.

For more information on the estimates of the universe of WPS operations and workers/handlers, see the Information Collection Request (ICR) associated with the regulation, Docket ID # EPA-HQ-OPP-2011-0184. The ICR was revised after the Proposal. The revised ICR can be found in the docket under: Documentation of EO 12866 Review; Agricultural Worker Protection Standard Revisions Final Rule (RIN 2070-AJ22). Documents for the final rule are under the docket ID # EPA-HQ-OPP-2011-0184-2520. The ICR title within the docket for final WPS rule is “EO 12866 Documentation; Draft Submitted to OMB - ICR (RIN 2070-AJ22; Final Rule)

The number of activities in a state or tribe is based on a number of factors: the physical size of the state or tribal reservation; the resources available to the state or tribe; the number of agricultural operations in the state or reservation that must comply with the Worker Protection Standard; the degree to which the predominant types of agricultural operations involve workers and handlers (e.g., more hand labor is involved in producing vegetables & fruit than in producing wheat); the distance between covered agricultural operations and facilities; the geographic location of the state or tribal reservation; as well as other local considerations.

A state’s selection of a response is guided by that state’s Enforcement Response Policy (ERP) which establishes the type of response based on the violation. If violations are detected during inspections, several paths may be taken to return an operation to compliance. In some situations, violations are minor. Many of these violations are corrected by the facility without the need for an enforcement action. Other violations may require an "informal" or a formal notice to the agricultural operation that an enforcement proceeding may occur if the violation is not resolved in an established time frame. More serious or continuing violations that are not corrected by the facility may warrant formal enforcement actions. This could include: administrative orders for compliance, administrative penalty orders, or judicial cases filed in state or federal court.

Most states report some enforcement actions under the category “other enforcement actions.” The FIFRA Cooperative Agreement Guidance says this category includes: “any other written, verifiable enforcement action initiated by the state, tribe or federal agency that is not comparable to one of the other enforcement action categories.” States have a variety of enforcement responses which are reported as “other”. Examples include: citation for violation; notice of non-compliance; field notification of non-compliance with instructions to correct by a date certain; stop action order; and informal settlement conference. The Dashboard renames “other” enforcement actions as Additional Actions.

While FIFRA does not authorize tribes to be granted primacy, (primary enforcement authority) Tribes who have cooperative enforcement agreements with EPA and have appropriate tribal enforcement authority are treated by EPA as having primacy. However, not all tribes wish to or have sufficient resources to operate a pesticide program. For these tribal areas, an EPA Regional Office is responsible for implementing the pesticide program.

The number of tribes with cooperative enforcement agreements varies from year to year. While many tribes have operated under pesticide cooperative enforcement agreements for several years, other tribal programs are new; with only a few years of data available. Additionally, some tribes operate “circuit rider” programs, where inspectors from one tribe conduct inspections on several tribes’ lands under agreements with those tribes. Tribes may also operate pesticide compliance and enforcement programs under their own tribal authority and regulations. Inspections and enforcement actions conducted under those sovereign programs are not EPA reviewed or reported, and are not included in the Dashboard.

About the Data and Assessing State and Tribal Performance

State and tribal performance is a complex and difficult matter to analyze and explain. the data does not provide a complete picture of performance. Some states and tribes have expressed concerns with data completeness and accuracy, and without investigation and program knowledge, data can be misleading or misinterpreted without thorough investigation and program knowledge. There is important context surrounding data that must be taken into account to provide an accurate picture. For example, not all activities and violations may be reported. Some states or tribes do not have authorization to administer programs. EPA uses data, such as the information here, as one aspect of a multi-faceted method for assessing state performance; Thus, raw data is not the sole measure of performance. The muli-faceted program reviews assess the programs in areas outlined in the FIFRA Cooperative Agreement Guidance issued jointly by the Office Of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) and the Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP). This process may also identify needed state or tribal program improvements. Program reporting, and file reviews coupled with management discussions contribute to greater understanding, but the many layers of context and information make it challenging to portray performance in a consistent and transparent way.

Caveats

Activities and Violations

Data shown in the State and Tribal Dashboards are based on information in EPA databases and data reported from EPA databases such as ICIS; information reported to EPA by states and tribes on the 5700-33H forms; and data from the USDA NASS 2007 and 2012 Census of Agriculture. The data does not reflect all compliance monitoring/inspections or enforcement activities, nor the full extent of enforcement activity within a state or tribe. More detailed information about the data including state-by-state comments may be found at ECHO Data.

Authorization

In general, under FIFRA, states have primary enforcement authority (primacy) for compliance monitoring and for enforcement of pesticide use requirements within their state. States with primacy conduct inspections and enforce against the mis-use of pesticides; uses in violation of labeling requirements. The state agency that has primacy for pesticides differs among states. In most cases, a state's department of agriculture has primacy, but this responsibility may also be within a state environmental or public health agency or other subdivision of the state. While FIFRA does not authorize tribes to be granted primacy, EPA may treat tribes who have cooperative enforcement agreements with EPA and have appropriate tribal enforcement authority as having primacy.

On the dashboard, in instances where a state or tribe does not have primacy, if that state or tribe is selected from the drop down menu as the implementing agency, it may appear that no activity was conducted. Select EPA as the implementing agency, and activity in these states or territories will be displayed. Some states, territories, and tribes have few, if any pesticide-producing establishments and will not have any activities reported. Likewise, some states or tribes have few agricultural operations covered under the Worker Protection Standard and will record fewer inspections. Currently, the only state without primacy is Wyoming.

The number of tribes with cooperative enforcement agreements varies from year to year. While many tribes have operated under pesticide cooperative enforcement agreements for several years, other tribal programs may be new with only a few years of data available. Additionally, some tribes operate “circuit rider” programs, where inspectors from one tribe conduct inspections on several tribes’ lands under agreements with those tribes. Tribes may also operate pesticide compliance and enforcement programs under their own tribal authority and regulations. Inspections and enforcement actions conducted under those sovereign programs are not EPA reviewed or reported, and are not included in the Dashboard.

Current Year

The most recent federal fiscal year data shown is 2014. State and tribal data is from the state or tribe's cooperative agreement year. Cooperative agreement years are generally the federal fiscal year (October 1 – September 30), or the state fiscal year (July 1 – June 30) or another date agreed to under the agreement.